Six foreign Al-Qaeda suspects including a woman were killed when a bomb they were making exploded in Pakistan's restive tribal region near the Afghan border, the military said.

"It seems the explosion occurred when these people were busy making an improvised explosive device for terrorist activity," chief military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan told AFP on Saturday, quoting local administration officials.

Residents said the blast happened at about 1:30 am (2030 GMT Friday) in a house near Mir Ali, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) east of Miranshah, the main town in the rugged tribal zone of North Waziristan.

Sultan said six people were killed, one of whom was female, and they were all believed to be foreigners although their exact nationalities were still being investigated.

The blast during the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr came days after security forces killed an Arab Al-Qaeda suspect and seized another in a shootout in the southwestern province of Baluchistan.

Hundreds of insurgents with suspected links to Al-Qaeda sneaked into Pakistan across the porous border from Afghanistan after US-led forces ousted the hardline Taliban regime there in late 2001.

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